Putin insists on lifting EU restrictions on Russian fertilizers for developing states

SAMARKAND. Sept 16 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the UN Secretariat to demand that the EU lift restrictions on Russian fertilizer exports to developing countries.

"I would like to use the presence of United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs DiCarlo here as an opportunity - and I told UN Secretary-General Mr. Guterres the same yesterday - and to ask for influencing the European Commission's decision and to demand by deeds, rather than by words that they lift these restrictions, the clearly discriminatory restrictions for developing countries. So that access of Russian fertilizers to these markets is ensured," Putin said at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

In his words, 300,000 tonnes of Russian fertilizers are stranded in European ports.

"We are ready to hand them over to developing countries for free," Putin said.

He said he was hoping that foreign trade parties would stop using such instruments as protectionism, illegal sanctions and economic egoism for selfish ends.

The European Commission has lifted the sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports to EU member states, while keeping the ban on exports to other countries in place, Putin said.

"What about the developing, the poorest countries of the world?" he added.